Bintoy is one of dozens of objects that this designer has created that makes new uses of everyday objects. many of the experiments are brilliant, like the bintoy. Many concepts fall flat. But the key here is experiment, prototype, and release to the world.

Lesauskas.lt | Projects.

Clearly a better sink trap design – Core77.

“Another Sign that the Construction Industry is Behind the Times” was my original article name, but it was a bit too long. Why would I say this? As an architect who has spent a great deal of time in the field trying to save my client money, I see construction DUH! moments all the time. Another duh moment is when I saw this invention recently at Core 77. This invention above which is a clear sink trap that will never clog and will always let you know where that lost ring went is a sign that for years a simple solution to a major problem awaited. This new invetion will save homeowners millions over the years for a very small initial cost today.

Out at architecture sites, I see this on a daily basis and wonder why more contractors are not entrepreneurs when they see how much time they waste doing certain tedious jobs. Take interior painting for instance. I’ve worked on architecture projects where every single corner of a room is taped with plastic just to paint the frames of the doors. This whole process must have taken hours to tape not to mention all of this plastic will be tossed in the garbage. How about a frame to contain overspray? How about more pre-painting? Seriously, there are thousands of inventions just awaiting the designer’s eye out onthe construction site. IDEO, if you’re out there, I know Medical devices are lucrative, but all aspects of the construction industry are in need of a serious overhaul. Help!

I got a tip from a company called French Paper. They alerted me to their beutiful wood prints that they make, but I’m enamoured with their Doo the Dishes collection of sexy silhouettes printed on plates and backed by a touch of baroque sensibility. It’s rare that I’ve fantisized about a silhouette much less plateware, however, when I gaze upon the melamine surfaced plate’s perfectly upturned nose and pouty lips I can only daydream of more.

French Paper

Handpresso, available at Charles and Marie, is your ticket to never being stuck on a back country hiking trail without a good shot of espresso easily available. I used to carry something called a Jetboil. My friends raved about this thing, so I had to have one. And as it promises, the Jetboil boils water in seconds. Here’s the catch. The Jetboil comes with a coffee adapter to make French press style coffee, but the device led to a scalded hand and lots of grounds in my cup of coffee. Admittedly, I didn’t use the press quite right when I got the hand scald, but it has never worked quite well for coffee when I did use it right. Now, my savior comes in, and its name is Handpresso. This plus the Jetboil is the one-two punch for the camping barrista.

Perch, a furniture concept by Simon Dennehy, is one of those aha! ideas that you wonder why you have not seen this concept sooner. The Perch system is comprised of a table and a chair that have been expertly contoured to meet a massively lacking area of furniture design. There is an endless host of useful features in this concept:

• The seat flexes to encourage leg movement
• The frames of the chairs are not only light and simple to operate but also stackable
• The desk is the centerpiece of a clip on shelf system that could accompany a student from desk to desk
• The desk and seat are adjusted with a very simple and easy to use mechanism

Quite frankly, this system makes me wonder really how much school children really matter. I remember when I was in school, my back and butt hurting nearly every day from sitting in the ubiquitous awful school chair. Yet, Mr. Dennehy’s concept, although brilliantly simple, should have been implemented much, much sooner than 2008.

Milan has an extremely intricate pattern that makes up its central city. Roads thousand of years old crisscross with modern freeways and light rail tracks. Now you will always be reminded of walking those crooked side streets by whacking a couple of flies.

I was eating an everlasting gobbstopper today. Maybe you remember this candy? It is a candy that has a beautiful, shiny candy coating and within the coating are the multicolored strata of candy goodness. I’m not sure why, exactly, but the Waldo/45 table by James Burleigh when I saw it immediately transported me to 9am this morning when the sweet slickness of the gobbstopper rolled back and forth over my tongue. This piece of furniture just begs me to break a piece off and eat it for dessert.

Zoe Mowat has come up with something I find quite special. Her Circumflex accent chair is a perfect triumvirate of steel, cast plastic, and walnut which creates something that is forward thinking and yet retains an old-world richness. Usually, when I see chairs like this they’re either too clumsy or look like a robot made the chair, but this chair is just right. I can’t wait to actually sit in this chair, though. I see this as a very good restaurant chair except that your back may be a bit fatigued after two hours of dining. Maybe the best use of the chair is somewhere where design is paramount but sitting around should be no longer than a few minutes.

Let’s face it. We live in a toxic world. Everything we build our home out of or bring our home into is constantly off gassing toxins. Then along comes Bel Air, a product proposal by Mathieu Lehanneur. He proposes with Bel Air to create a new type of air purifier by expertly selecting plants that have been found by NASA to remove cancer causing toxins in the air. And if that were not enough, Mr. Lehanneur has wrapped this new air purifying mechanism in a more than beautiful container. It’s pill shape and white container will fit in to any iPod loving modern interior. all you have to do is plug it in and add water.

Scott Amron sent me a link to his Die Electric project months ago, and I loved it so much that I wrote a post about it and but somehow it was lost in the ether. Finally, I’m back on the case: Die Electric is a play on dialectic mixed with a little die and a little electricity. It’s conversation involving sculpture and a standard A.C. outlet. I’m not sure how the initial aha! moment was born, but once it sprouted Scott wholeheartedly took on the challenge of using the A.C. Outlet as the most useful of structural cantilevers asking himself, ” Just what can I hang off of a plug?”.

The answer, among many other things, is a vase allowing you to add a bit of cheery flowers to any unused power outlet.   Yes, it seems a bit iffy to actually be plugging this into a socket. And, after all, the name “Die” is in the name of the project. But what the hell. I encourage you to buy into Scott’s project.  Just don’t sue me if you get hurt.

Maybe for a slightly safer feeling project of Scott’s, try out the off switch hook. No electricity involved.